Monday, October 26, 2015

WriterBish Denhamis hosting The Listing Fest today. Thanks for organizing, Bish! From Bish's website: The rules are simple. All you have to do is sign up in the linky thingy below, grab the banner, and make a list. I suggest you keep your list to between 5 and 25 items long.

Today, I’m listing some books I have read. (When I share these lists, I name only some books I’ve read in a time period, not all.)

1. LANDLINE by Rainbow Rowell (Adult-St. Martin's Press) A woman in a strained marriage discovers a magical phone that allows her to have phone conversations with her husband from the past.

2. LIKE SISTERS ON THE HOMEFRONT by Rita Williams-Garcia (YA-Lodestar) A teen mom, after having an abortion, is sent away from the city to the South to live with her uncle, aunt, and cousin, family she'd never met.

3. A SINGLE SHARD by Linda Sue Park (YA-Clarion) A boy living in 12th century Korea aspires to learn how to craft pottery.

4. WOVEN (YA-Scholastic) A murdered peasant boy teams up with a snobby princess, the only one who can see his ghost, to locate a magic needle. Check out my author interview.

5. CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT?: A MEMOIR (Graphic Novel for Adults, Non-Fiction- Bloomsbury USA) With humor and bittersweet nostalgia, a woman struggles to take care of her aging parents before they pass on.

6. THE CHOKE ARTIST: CONFESSIONS OF A CHRONIC UNDERACHIEVER by David Yoo (Adult, Non-Fiction-Grand Central Publishing) This memoir shares essays detailing a Korean American man's many agonies-from bedroom anxieties to workplace drama to family-related angst.

The first book I read by David was GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST, a YA novel. Check out my author interview.

7. ROLLER GIRL by Victoria Jamieson (Graphic Novel for MG readers- Penguin) A girl sadly observes her best friend befriending her bully and moves on by participating in a roller derby camp.

8. BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (MG, Non-Fiction- Nancy Paulsen) Told in verse, an African American girl raised as a Jehovah’s Witness shares about her upbringing during the 1960s and 1970s.

9. THE ADVENURES OF BEEKLE: THE UNIMAGINARY FRIENDS by Dan Santat
(PB- Little, Brown) An imaginary friend waits to be imagined by a child so he
can become real.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Today is IWSG day, a monthly eventAlex Cavanaugh started
to get writers sharing about their insecurities and other things. On the first
Wednesday of the month, a bunch of us gather on the blogosphere to share...First, I just want to thank some of you for the
nice comments from my last post. Things are better now. Encountering negativity happens to the best of us. I am moving on....Now onto
my post…

Recently, we introduced our
children to Charles Schulz’s Peanuts cartoons. Although I loved the Peanuts comics
as a child (as well as Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes), it actually has been
years since I watched the Peanuts cartoons or holiday specials. I have vague
recollections of Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, the gang enjoying toast and
popcorn for Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown getting a scrawny little Christmas
tree…Recently, I was watching excerpts from a Peanuts cartoon with my son and I
was reminded of how much more edgy vintage cartoons were compared to some of
the sterile children’s cartoons today.

In a moment of parental insecurity,
the one where I worry about whether my child would let something negative on TV
rub off on them, I began commenting on the morality of the scenes. That’s awful that Charlie Brown missed the
football and see… she made him hit his head! It’s not nice to call someone a “blockhead.”
Ignoring my comments,my
son continued to laugh at what he thought was funny.

Here’s the irony: Sometimes I get annoyed when I observe a parent criticizing the morality of what goes on in
a kidlit/YA story. But here I was, doing pretty much that with a cartoon, and
one I’d loved as a child at that. So I stopped talking and let my son watch the cartoon in peace.

On another day after that, I
worked at my desk as my son watched another Peanuts cartoon by himself. In the middle
of the episode, he called to me: “I heard someone say ‘stupid!’ They’re not
supposed to say that. It’s a bad word.”

“Yes, it is a bad word,” I called back. “Glad you’re
paying attention!”

I was pleased that my son
was able to derive his opinion about what was right and wrong about a character’s
behavior without my constant interjections.

That said, parental
supervision isn’t a bad thing. Not at all. I think it’s perfectly fine to have
conversations with our children about anything in a TV show, movie, song, or book
that we feel should be addressed. But I feel we should also give our children
space to figure some stuff out on their own too.

What do you think is the
right amount of parental supervision children should have regarding their exposure
to TV, movies, music, or books? Which cartoons or comics did you enjoy as a child?

About Me

Cynthia is a writer, a kidlit connoisseur, and a member of SCBWI. Born and raised in San Francisco, she currently lives in the Bay Area with her dear husband and children. Cynthia has a background in teaching English, pouncing on unsuspecting dessert tables, and waiting in line for book releases at midnight.